Whelp, that’s a wrap on this season. Getting your butt kicked by Lamar for the 2nd conference loss pretty much ends all hope of winning the conference. An at-large was already a long shot.
If they won out, they would have definitely gotten in, but I agree this is probably the end of the season. Actually frustrating, but hard to be too upset really. You'd like to really get that continuing success like NDSU, but that's pretty rare in FCS football.
Only "upset" because they had managed to survive the difficult stretch of the season...only to get blown out by Lamar. If Keeler is staying here, the administration needs to (not so) gently push him towards hiring a respectable DC. No reason to think Keeler hasn't earned the right to survive 1 bad season...but at some point you have to take that next step forward.
This sounds about right to me. Some segments of the fan base are probably going to call for his firing, but I think that's pretty silly. Sure, it's a bummer that this season is essentially over about halfway through, but missing the playoffs every once in a while happens to all FCS programs, with the obvious exception of NDSU. With that said, the defense just has to get better, but I think it's a smarter approach to try to get that done with Keeler still in place rather than starting from scratch. There's been waaaaaay too much good about the Keeler era to suggest that it's time to hit the reset button.
Looks like they’ve quit on the season. Just got our asses handed to us by that powerhouse Incarnate Word.
speaking of Incarnate Word.. Incarnate Word on brink of FCS playoff berth after shocking Southland Conference https://www.expressnews.com/sports/...lCCgTptN_FNn41zfgrXgvl6yK3sk6p4hL54j6lRPrQ_D0
It was a tough season, there's no doubt about that, but it's funny how things worked out that losses to UIW and Lamar, which might have looked particularly bad at the time because we're used to those being two bad teams, ended up looking not quite as bad. That's little solace, but I just thought it was interesting. I suppose the more painful realization after the playoff bracket was announced was that the Bearkats probably weren't nearly as out of the playoff race as we thought after the losses to UND and Nicholls, because the committee seems to respect the SLC more than most would have expected. After those two losses, I kind of assumed they would need to win the automatic bid because there just weren't all that many potential quality wins in front of them. In reality, it probably wasn't until the Lamar loss that SHSU was even in that much hot water from a playoff perspective, with the UIW loss being the nail in the coffin.
Or, they just weren’t very good this year and the coaching staff’s ignorance on the defensive side finally caught up to them (and proving how valuable PJ Hall was over the previous 4 years).
SHS gets a toenail? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Spoiler Texas redshirt sophomore RB Toneil Carter transferred to Sam Houston State. Carter (5'11/210) rushed for 252 yards and three touchdowns across nine games played during his inaugural season on campus in 2017, after signing on with the Longhorns as a four-star recruit, but he was unable to crack the field for even a singular carry during the just-completed campaign. He'll be receiving a redshirt for the season. At Sam Houston State, Carter will be eligible to play immediately come the start of the 2019 season.
